At the temple it was only the old people who recognized the Lord.

Saturday, 2/2/13

The Gospel
says, “When the days were completed for their purification according to the Law
of Moses, Mary took Jesus up to Jerusalem.” For Mary there had to be a ritual
of purification after her supposedly having been made unclean in giving birth.
For Jesus the ritual was a presentation. The first-born son, representing all the
children to be born in that family, was presented to God; then bought back with
a pair of doves.

What might
strike you in this narrative is that the priest and all the other temple people
failed to notice anything different about Mary and Jesus. It was only the aged
Simeon and Anna who recognized our Savior.

One time when I
was speaking about this to the kids at Mass I pointed out the holiness of the
elderly people who came to Mass every day. The kids said to me, “But they don’t
like us. They give us dirty looks.” But, that couldn’t be true.